← Back to homeDubai English Speaking School - Oud Metha
Dubai, UAE · est. 1963 · Private
Illustration · Dubai
Dubai English Speaking School in Oud Metha is the oldest British school in the UAE: it was founded in 1963 by the British Embassy on a site gifted by Sheikh Rashid, the former Ruler of Dubai, and in 2023 it marked its sixtieth birthday. It is a primary school: children are taken from the age of three and taught to eleven, through Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, following the English national curriculum in English. After that students move on to DESS College in Academic City, part of the same group of schools; together with the group's third school, the new DESS Academic City which opened in September 2025, they educate 3,800 children. The school holds an Outstanding rating on two counts - from the Dubai regulator KHDA and from the British Schools Overseas inspection scheme. The campus is unusually rich for a primary school: two real-grass pitches for football and rugby, an outdoor 25-metre six-lane swimming pool and a separate 0.8-metre-deep pool for the youngest, two netball and basketball courts, indoor sports halls, a music studio, a dance studio, science labs, a STEM room, a library, a hall for productions and events, quiet study rooms, an English language learning room, a room for children with special educational needs, a central playground, a zen garden and a parents' café. The school promises dozens of extracurricular activities a week - before lessons, at lunchtime and after school - but gives no list by name: only a rock band and a robotics and code club are named.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $11 732–14 519 a year
43 084–53 320 AED
About the fees The annual fee in the 2026-27 table: 43,084 dirhams for Foundation Stage 1 and 53,320 for Foundation Stage 2 and Years 1 to 6. It is paid in three parts due on 31 August, 4 January and 12 April, with the first part about a third larger than the others. On top of the fee there is an acceptance fee, which for Oud Metha from FS1 to Year 6 is 3,500 dirhams; it is non-refundable but is deducted from the first term's fee. The school warns separately that the fee schedule does not include charges for GCSE and GCE examinations or any external examination such as music or dance - these are invoiced separately.
Stages and year groups Grades Foundation Stage 1 from age 3 - Year 6, to age 11. The school is a primary one and ends with Year 6: Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, ages three to eleven. After that students move to DESS College in Academic City - a school of the same group for ages 11 to 18.
Address PO Box 2002, Oud Metha Road
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
BSO · accreditationschool is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
BSOBritish government inspection of schools overseas
A scheme of the UK Department for Education: a school abroad is inspected against the standards for independent schools in England, including safeguarding and the standards for boarding. The inspections are done by independent inspectorates approved by the department, and the inspectorates themselves are monitored annually by Ofsted. The reports are published in full on the government website.
What the badge means for this school. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Exams and destinations from the school's official website
The school publishes nothing about where its leavers go: no share going on to university, no exam results, no list of universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
✓Swimming pool
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
✓Theatre or assembly hall
✓Library
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Playground
Campus: A campus in Oud Metha, on the site gifted to the school in 1963. Two primary-school-sized real-grass pitches for football and rugby, an outdoor 25-metre six-lane swimming pool and a separate pool 0.8 metres deep all the way through for Foundation Stage, two netball and basketball courts, indoor sports halls, a music studio, a dance studio, science labs, a STEM room, a library, a hall for productions and events, quiet study rooms, an English language learning room, a room for children with special educational needs, a central playground, a zen garden, breakout areas and zen rooms, a sustainable garden and a parents' café.
Teaching staff
There is no data for this section yet.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
The school says nothing on its website about security, medical care or pupil support.
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)60 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data85 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data55 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 8 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country